Eden Holistic Dog Food

About 3 weeks ago we blogged about our decision to change both our dogs from Royal Canin to Eden Holistic Food.

As that previous post suggested, the decision was initially brought about by a persistent foot itch on Jessie. The vet suggested that it may be an allergy, and we spent ages trying to work out what had changed in her life. We finally realised something had changed at a time that matched the appearance of the redness, her food ! We had changed from Royal Canin puppy food to their adult food. Further research showed the ingredients of the adult version was less protein based and more grains.. Could she be allergic to grains ?

We then did further research and were quite shocked at the contents and quality of many foods. A great help was a website called Which Dog Food The site is run by an independent canine nutritionist David Jackson and plainly rates most foods on a 5 star basis.

After checking the food we were using (it scored 2.1) we decided to see what scored a full 5 stars. To cut a long story short we decided to move to Eden Holistic Food purchased from a local supplier Jane Vernon at Woofcuts in Bury.

So how have the last 3 weeks been?

Week 1 Jessie was still on a third week of antibiotics, they were helping the areas on her feet that had become infected from her own chewing, but the general redness did not seem to improve. The webs between her feet wept a clear fluid and the fur in that area browned and pulled out easily. Things improved when we started giving her a small dose of Piriton (2mg morning and night), further convincing us it was an allergy.
Eden suggests a 2 week transition from any existing food to theirs, but we needed to ease her feet, so we came up with a 1 week plan.
It has to be said that the change for some can be a delicate process, the dogs digestive system has to get used to a much higher protein food, in smaller quantities. There is also a detox element of getting rid of the old additives and grain based traces in their system. Some dogs can experience loose bowel movements, but on the whole Jessie converted easily.

Weeks 2 and on With Max we weaned him to Eden over 2 weeks, so week 2 was still part of his changeover. On the whole we had no real problems and they both love the taste and beg for more. We did find Max was eating far to fast and excitedly. We resolved this by buying a slow down bowl, it has several raised lumps making it harder to scoop up large mouthfuls. During week 2 we also discovered Jessie liked the Eden even more when soaked in boiling water.

Current Now with over three weeks gone both Jessie and Max are in a good routine. Jessie has lost a bit of weight. She was 9.3kg and she is now 9.1kg so had enough to lose that much. She currently looks lean and trim. Her coat is noticeably softer and silkier, her ears are less waxy too. As for her feet? They are back to normal ! Minus some missing fur. We have reduced her Piriton to 2mg in the morning and plan to stop this now. Max is putting on weight nicely and he too has a gorgeous sheen to his coat.
Eden do suggest adding the odd raw chicken wing into the diet, the kibble is very rich and a little bone and fresh meat can bulk it up.. being wimps we couldn't stomach bone crunching, so have bought a bag of chicken mince that includes the bone.

At 9.1kg Jessie is eating 130g of Eden split over 2 meals. Evening meal has a couple of spoons of raw chicken mince added.
Max is 4.kg and is eating 150g of Eden split over 3 meals again the evening one has a couple of spoons of raw chicken.

Treats along with moving to a far better quality food, we have taken away Gravy Bones and replaced with fresh liver cubes. Although they like the Eden kibble so much they are happy to accept that as rewards. Dentastix and Rawhide has been replaced with Antler chews and they now both have spotless shiny teeth.

Our research has led us to believe dogs are carnivores and we have proved to ourselves they do better on a diet that is 80% meat 20% veg and 0% Maize Grain Rice. Eden Holistic Food provides a perfect diet designed to match what dogs were born to eat. Our dogs eat better than us. We eat badly as a choice, if we feed them badly that's not their choice.

Since writing this post we have created an overview of our Eden Experience which can be found on the tabs at the top of this page or HERE

6 comments:

I am happy for the development of Jessie and Max. So many dog foods are really unreliable and are harmful to our dogs. So I recommend that you try feeding Jessie and Max home made dog food. But change it gradually so it won't be hard for them to adjust. In this way you can avoid chemicals and preservatives that are certainly present in every commercialized dog foods. These chemicals will harm them eventually, you may not noticed it. At least, feeding them home made dog food gives you the assurance that you are not feeding your dog foods that can harm them.

Thanks for your comment Gary, after a lot of research we are pretty confident that Eden provides, a well balanced and safe diet. It is produced in the Uk by a small family business and the owners are open an involved in a helpful Facebook group offering info and advice.